About ToxicTrailers.com

ToxicTrailers.com was launched after Hurricane Katrina in 2005 when the government spent more than $2 billion on FEMA trailers with high levels of formaldehyde that sickened thousands of people. The FEMA trailer tragedy exposed what is a widespread problem in RVs, mobile homes, modular buildings and even conventional buildings that use pressed wood products. Unfortunately, as we approach the tenth anniversary of Katrina, formaldehyde regulations are not being enforced in the U.S., and people's health is at risk. If you are having burning eyes, congestion, sore throat, coughing, breathing difficulties, frequent sinus infections or rashes, and difficulties concentrating, you may have a formaldehyde problem. For questions or to share your story, write 4becky@cox.net.

Wednesday, February 11, 2009

This comment was posted on YouTube regarding the Huckabee YouTube interview (link on the right of this page):

Same problem with RVs for many years. My '02 travel trailer is still toxic with formaldehyde. Last fall we tested the air in the unit and it was much higher than acceptable. Even 6-7 yrs after manufacture, this RV is still pushing out fumes. The industry has been well aware of this problem and keeps it quiet. Good old USA, anything to make a buck, even when it hurts folks.

I talked to to a businessman that sells RVs (recreational vehicles/trailers) and parts. He said that now his major business has become parts sales for FEMA toxic trailers. These are Individuals who purchased scrap FEMA formaldehyde trailers that FEMA tested for toxic air quality and ruled uninhabitable. The purchasers who are seeking parts so they can live in or sell these toxic trailers to unsuspecting victims.

Sunday, February 8, 2009

FEMA is scheduled to end its Gulf Coast housing program at the end of March. This includes payments for rentals, hotels and the use of trailers/mobile homes. There is a since of emergency among the individuals who are in trailers, in hotels and/or receiving as well as the landlords of rental properties. The people who have are still receiving benefits from FEMA are folks who have not yet rebuilt and/or were renters. They cannot afford and/or unable to to build, purchase or rent. Many of these, soon to be homeless, are unemployed, disabled, sick and elderly. For some reason these individuals fell between the cracks in FEMA's bureaucracy. These unfortunates will join the thousands of other Gulf Coast residents who became displaced and homeless left in wake of hurricanes Katrina, Rita, Gustav, Ike and FEMA. FEMA wasted billions on providing temporary housing to disaster survivors (estimated at $250,000 expense for the use of a $12,000 trailer). FEMA now leaves without providing any permanent housing, solutions or accountability for knowingly exposing hundreds of thousands to toxic chemical agents hidden in FEMA housing. On the Gulf Coast, FEMA is best known for transforming survivors into victims. FEMA employees and friendly contractors made billions while many of their victims live with unknown health risk and despair. It may that longer for many to recover from the disaster that is FEMA, than from the disaster itself. Efforts continue by faith based groups to assist, without this effort more would be facing similar dilemmas

Thursday, February 5, 2009

I just tested a Fleetwood travel trailer provided by FEMA to a man in Bay St. Louis. He asked for testing after developing breathing problems. The trailer tested at 0.154 ppm--much more than you should be exposed to for even short periods of time. And remember, this is the coldest time of the year when outgassing should be low. The trailer was three years old, and when he got it, the formaldehyde odor was terrible and caused problems like a runny nose and congestion. SInce formaldehyde levels decrease with age, can you imagine how high this was when he got the trailer? He is now on two medications for breathing problems, but the medicine is only partly helpful.

An article in the Sun Herald recently said 324 families are still in FEMA trailers in Mississippi, but they are being moved out in the next four weeks.

It is a sad fact that for 20 years suppliers in China have been sending products low in formaldehyde to Japan and Europe, while sending high formaldehyde products to the U.S. that has had no regulations regarding formaldehyde levels in imported products. An article in Furniture Today (link listed under formaldehyde news on the lower right of this page) quotes Bill Perdue, American Home Furniture Assn., vice president of environmental, safety and health issues and standards, as saying: “Many of the industry's suppliers are offshore and have met the European and Japanese standards two decades.” AHFA is supporting formaldehyde regulations.

Warning: RVS and mobile homes may be hazardous to your health!!

Imagine that you have just lost your home in a natural disaster, and are now waiting to get a FEMA trailer for temporary housing. The fact is, you and your family might be better off in a tent or living with friends and relatives, even if it is crowded.

After Hurricane Katrina, FEMA purchased about 102,000 travel trailers at a cost of $2.6 billion to house the victims of the nation’s largest natural disaster. It turns out that the vast majority of these trailers have excessive levels of formaldehyde. See the results of testing done by the CDC that were announced Feb. 29, 2008 at the website http://cdc.gov/nceh/ehhe/trailerstudy/ or just Google CDC formaldehyde FEMA study. This website also has links to information for residents and health care practitioners.

From the very beginning people who received FEMA trailers after Katrina reported experiencing problems such as irritated eyes, breathing problems, bloody noses, headaches, nausea, frequent respiratory infections and skin rashes. We know one family that moved from the FEMA trailer into a storage shed on their property because their daughter threw up every time she spent any time in the trailer. Another man sleeping in his driveway next to his trailer said, “My FEMA trailer is killing me!” One couple experienced such heavy chest congestion combined with nose bleeds that they abandoned their FEMA trailer to sleep in their truck.

The CDC testing confirmed three earlier rounds of testing done by Sierra Club in Mississippi, Louisiana and Alabama in 2006 and 2007 with test kits from Advanced Chemical Sensors. Out of 69 tests, 61 were over 0.1 ppm which represents 88 percent of the trailers tested. The tests used 0.1 ppm as the concentration above which health impacts are expected. However, much lower levels are recommended for long-term exposure. The Agency for Toxic Substances & Disease Registry (ATSDR) Minimal Risk Levels are 0.04 ppm for 1-14 days, 0.03 for 14-364 days and 0.008 ppm for 365 or more days exposure. The lowest of the 69 Sierra Club tests was 0.04. The highest test was 0.39.

As you will see by reading the blogs on this page, the formaldehyde problem is not confined to just RVs and mobile homes purchased by FEMA. Manufacturers state that they didn't do anything differently for RVs and mobile homes sold to FEMA than those sold to the general public. People across the country are reporting formaldehyde problems in not just campers and manufactured housing, but regular homes, offices, churches and schools.

For an in-depth look at this issue including how FEMA and the ATSDR tried to coverup the problem rather than respond to a major public health disaster, see the hearing transcript from the U.S. House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform at http://oversight.house.gov/story.asp?ID=1413.